Redstate

By aaronbg Posted in 2008 — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Some thoughts

This is not our last election.
This too shall pass
The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing

I know that many of us are in a daze, melancholy, upset, disappointed, hurt, fearful, and without hope for political progress in the near term. I know many of us are conflicted, between what we know in our heart and what we fear with our mind. I know many of us would like to sit this one out. I know these things because, if I may steal a line from the Beatles, I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.

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These are trying times. These times reflect to me what my father must have been feeling in the summer of 1976. My Mother was pregnant with her second child, her and my Father were living in southern California. My Father was a Vietnam vet working as a drafter for some of the big defense companies of the day. Many in the Republican Party were wearing pastels and had political policies to match. Society was crumbling.

But in the midst of what could only have been a sense of impending doom, there was a ripple in the waters. Like a pot of water just beginning to bubble before the boil. The conservative movement was awake and in a few years the political and cultural landscape of America was going to go back to a more “American” system both in the political and cultural arena.

I am sure that there were times when my Father did not think he was going to make it. I am sure there are times my Father feared for my future. I am sure there were times when my Father wasn’t sure what he could do to help.

I am sure of these things because today I am a father. These worries that haunted my Father haunt me today.

Fortunately, my Father remembers those days. Not because of how trying they were. Not because of the struggles. He remembers those days so that he can educate and comfort me and others like me who did not have to live those days.

Now some of you may be asking, “What does this have to do with anything?”

This is the point:

This is not our last election.
This too shall pass.
The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

I am a FredHead.
I am going to vote for McCain.
I am going to vote for the most conservative candidate in any primary in 2012.

If we search ourselves and believe in our hearts and minds in the conservative movement we will see that we need to support McCain because we are conservative, not in spite of it. This does not make McCain the standard bearer for conservatives. This does not make conservatives moderate. This is the only logical position I can take as a conservative.

Fellow conservatives I urge you to vote for McCain, but I also expect you to continue the policy fight. We can find unity with the greater Republican Party in our short term goals, while fighting to preserve our long held principles.

These are my thoughts, parsed by conviction and principle.

Aaron Boyd Gardner